Learning about the wonderful world of whisk(e)y and sharing the journey.

Lagavulin 21 – The best. In theory, anyway.

Introduction

Lagavulin 21 sample

These tasting notes are based on a sample of Lagavulin 21 1985 vintage, bottled in 2007 at 56.5% ABV. It was matured exclusively in first-fill European oak sherry casks. Supposedly, this is to be the last “fully sherried” release from Lagavulin, and this was a limited bottling with 6600 numbered bottles. I’ve been very curious about this bottling, but it’s not available in Arizona, and costs a fortune these days by mail order or on eBay.

I was lucky enough to have recently traded a sample of my Laphroaig 30 for this Lagavulin 21 sample with a local whisky drinker (Sean), who I met through the Whisky Magazine forum. I got about 75ml of the Laga 21. This was quite generous of him considering there are still a couple of bottles of Laphroaig 30 here in town for $250, but Lagavulin is nowhere to be found (except on eBay for $500). The Laga 21 is also his all time favorite whisky. I had built Lagavulin 21 up as the likely “perfect dram” for me. It should have the great nose of the Laph 30, but provide more power on the palate and finish. The Lagavulin 16 and 1991 DE bottlings rank just below Laphroaig 30 on my list of favorites, so surely this one would rocket to the top. Let’s find out…

Tasting notes

On the nose (take 1): A couple of nights ago, I poured small drams of this Laga 21, Laphroaig 30, and Laga 1991 DE. I started out by nosing all of them, with the Laga 21 coming last. When I got to it, I prepared to be wowed, and took a good whiff. Woa! I was immediately hit with a huge dairy farm smell (It also reminds me of a smell I’ve noticed when shooting off fireworks…which reminded me of driving by a dairy farm 🙂 ). To be honest, I found it a little off-putting. Then I spent more time with it and found that once I started breaking it into smaller components, there was quite a bit there. One of the components was sherry. Usually, I’ll talk about sherry “influence” on a whisky, resulting in red berries, maybe some dried fruits. In this case, it’s literally sherry…not just a sherry influence. Interesting.

On the nose (take 2): Last night I poured a litle more of my Lagavulin 21 sample. This time, I was NOT hit by that big dairy farm smell. It was much more along the lines of what I originally expected. Strong sherry; still a full actual sherry scent. Also peat, but not a tarry peat…more like moss. There’s also something that reminds me of a leather-bound book, and a rich caramel sweetness. Of course there’s a nice smokiness to it. As I spent more time with it, I periodically got reminded of that dairy farm smell. Or is it spent matches?

On the nose (take 3): Ok, one more time with a comparison (Laga 21 and Laga DE). First a quick whiff right out of the sample bottle, and I was met with sweet (and smoky) berry pie. No cows. Then onto the comparison in nosing glasses. Again, nosing the DE first, then moving over to the 21, I get hit by that big farm/cow smell. Weird. Something about nosing one of the other whiskies first causes this reaction with the Laga 21. I can move back over to the DE and it smells “normal”. What’s going on here? [Update: Answer further down]

On the palate, I’m getting the full Lagavulin experience, but more intense than with the 16 or DE. Nice full body, with an amazingly thick coat on the tongue. Strong peat with some noticeable pepper. There is a little bit of alcohol hotness at first due to the ABV. A little water tones that down without really harming the rest of the expreience. Then onto that amazing smoky, medicinal, peaty finish that I love so much with the other Lagavulin expressions. It lasts and lasts…excellent.

Conclusion

In theory, this is the best scotch I’ve had. The palate and finish are everything you would want from a Lagavulin, and the nose adds significant complexity to the more standard bottlings. Perfect, right? In reality, I had to work too hard with the nose for my tastes. If I swirl it around and get the evaporation going, or if I nose it after another dram, I get hit by that dairy farm [sulphur?] smell and it throws me off. If I approach it gently, there is all kinds of great stuff going on there. At times, it was truly great, but the greatness came and went. I couldn’t keep it in focus.

When I’m in the mood to concentrate and work on appreciating my dram, this could be right up at the top of my list. The bottom line, though, is that I’m ALWAYS in the mood for Lagavulin 16, Lagavulin DE or Laphroaig 30. With those whiskies, the nose comes to me and pulls me in, and the rest of the experience is pure enjoyment. For me, that puts them a notch above this expression.

Update: Definitely some indicators in the comments below that I might just be sensitive to sulphur, as both TIm F (The Whisky Exchange) and Ruben (WhiskyNotes) comment on sulphur notes, and Ruben points out that one of the Malt Maniacs even gave a warning about the level of sulphur in this expression. Maybe I need to search out another known sulphuric whisky and see how I react.

[Update 2] I’ve tried a couple of other whiskies that are known to have a sulphur component, and I had the same “dairy farm”/fireworks reaction that I had with this Laga 21. I’m pretty sure now that this is just the way I interpret a sulphur influence. I’ve also read enough in forums and blog posts now to realize that some people are much more sensitive to sulphur than others, so your mileage will likely vary on this.

Other opinions

It would appear that I’m not giving this whisky its full due. Everybody seems to rave about it. Reading the Whisky Magazine forum, there are a number of people declaring Lagavulin 21 as their favorite whisky of all time. The Malt Maniacs gave it the “top single malt” award for 2008. Here are some reviews:

WHISKYFUN.COMby Serge – 95 points from Serge. Obviously, he loves it. Lots of good info and interesting notes in this review.

Malt Maniacs #111 – In E-pistle 2009/06, Luca provides his notes on Lagavulin 21. He even warns that if you’re sensitive to sulphur, you might consider this one “over the top”. [Updated 6/24 per Ruben’s comment below (WhiskyNotes)] BTW – Follow the WhiskyNotes link on one of his comments. He has a great whisky blog.

The Whisky Exchange – Check out Tim Forbes’ notes. He doesn’t say so explicitly, but I think he might like this whisky more than sex!

Like this:

Related

10 Responses

What you call ‘farmy’ is probably a hint of sulphur that comes from desinfecting the sherry casks before transporting them from Spain to Scotland. The fact that you mention ‘used matches’ also points in this direction. At times, I think this Laga 21 is fabulous, but then I notice the hints of sulphur and the perfectness disappears (although it’s still very very good). In fact, that’s the reason why I didn’t publish tasting notes myself yet, although I happen to have a couple of bottles in my stock (they’re still available and ridiculously cheap in Spain, just over $200). It’s interesting that it got hugely positive reviews at first, and now some critics seem to rise. By the way, make sure you keep the whisky in the glass for 15-30 minutes before actually nosing/tasting. This helps to minimize any sulphur.

Hi Ruben,
Thanks for the feedback and the tip! Maybe it is a slight sulphur influence. From what I’ve read on forums about other whiskies that supposedly contain sulphur, it seems like it is something that affects people differently, with some being particularly sensitive to it. Although, I thought Aberlour a’bunadh was one of those whiskies and I don’t have any issues with that one that I can recall.

It’s funny you mention holding back on publishing your notes, as I didn’t want to post mine, either. If I had a whole bottle to spend some more time with, I’m sure I would have put off writing about it until I could understand it better. There certainly is a lot going on with this whisky.

Whatever it is that I’m picking up, I think I kind of ruined it for myself by doing that “comparative nosing” right off the bat. For some reason, that approach really brings out this cow farm element of the Laga 21 nose for me. I think I couldn’t help but look for it after that.

Funny enough, I tasted this again recently (thanks to Ruben!) and I don’t know if it was because it was after a lot of other things or because I’d been keeping it in its sample for a long time (or indeed because I’d built it up in my head!), but it wasn’t as I remembered it at all – I was pretty disappointed. But is that the whisky, the circumstances, or me? I don’t know.

I don’t have proper notes for my re-tasting of it, but I was pretty surprised that I hadn’t picked the sulphur up first time I had it as it seemed so obvious going back to it. That said, the first time I had it I had tasted some other peaty stuff before hand as well and it really was, er, orgasmic. I’m confused that it can taste so different to me now as I don’t think my tastes / opinions have changed that much in 18 months.

Hi Tim,
Interesting to hear another mention of sulphur, although it sounds like you and Ruben are commenting on the same bottle. I suppose there could be some variation in the amount of sulphur influence from bottle to bottle.

Sean (the owner of the bottle I sampled from) says that he also gets some “farmyard” notes, but it’s more of a freshly tilled earth and vegetable thing. I get some earthy notes too, but I associate that with the peat.

My house backs up to a small farm that occasionally houses some cattle, and we used to have a bunch of dairy farms around here. The smell I’m getting (sometimes stronger than others) is definitely of the bovine variety, or at least that’s the way my brain processes it.

You mention having tasted some other peaty expressions prior to the Laga 21 your first time around. The funny thing for me is that nosing the other peaty, sherried malts first seemed to intensify the cow smell on the Laga 21.

I don’t believe bottle differences can be this radical (sulphur or no sulphur), it would mean Lagavulin had different batches which is very unlikely. It’s true though that spirit can change in the bottle but only after several years. My bottle was opened about six months ago and I don’t notice any changes.